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Ricochet Founders® Peter Robinson and Rob Long take your questions (after they chat about current events for a few minutes).
Thanks to everyone who chimed in with the great queries. We’ll do this again in a few months. Happy end of summer!
Music from this week’s podcast: I’m Still Here by Follies (New Broadway Cast Recording)
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Obama was a dangerous force who pushed our country ever closer to Western European-style social democracy (and we’ll be arriving there soon; buckle up!) I loathe the man’s politics. But I’d rather have dinner with him than Donald Trump any night of the week because as much as I despise him ideologically, Obama is not a scumbag. Trump is a scumbag. A full on, lying, huckstery, self-aggrandizing, let’s-make-common-cause-with-Klansmen, scumbag. And I still can’t believe he’s president.
Very enjoyable podcast. Rob was his usual sprightly curmudgeon self, and Peter is ever the thoughtful gentleman. The vacation-weekend vibe set in — a nice change of pace. Answering members’ questions is a good idea and worth doing now and again. Thanks, Peter, for sharing the moving story about your dad’s death and your mother’s, later.
Dear Rob,
Greetings from Ithaca. I was shocked to hear you endorse Bastiat’s Broken Window Fallacy.
Natural disasters aren’t a form of “economic stimulus.” The destruction of wealth (e.g., Cash for Clunkers) doesn’t make us wealthier. Yes, there’s lots of rebuilding, but the resources used to rebuild have to be diverted from other productive uses.
I recommend three Hail Marys and a good Act of Contrition.
Yes, but I think there is a difference between having dinner with someone you’d find more interesting and someone you find less morally objectionable. I would rather not have dinner with either one, but if I had to choose, it would probably be the person least likely to tweet insults about me afterwards.
Oh, come on! That’s ridiculous.
I dont care if he’d tweet insults about me – I am not famous so nobody would know who its about – Its a recurring nightmare of mine to be trapped in an elevator with one of these sanctimonious lefty cranks. Not just Obama, Bill & Hill, Jackson, Sharpton (IF you google ‘race hustler’ the dictionary uses ‘Al Sharpton as an example) … you know the types incapable of saying anything constructively meaningful, but also incapable of shutting up… I’d rather have time with Trump, because he’d be interesting.
((Also remember the photo of Obama and Putin, sitting at some G8 conference? Putin looked suicidal bored. The media insulted him about it – not realizing that the company he was keeping bored him to death.))
Good point!
You took the words right out of my mouth. I love Rob, but now I’m wondering if he would advocate using spoons to bail the water because it would create more jobs.* ;-)
*Please pardon my plagiarism of Milton Friedman.
One’s willingness to acknowledge Donald Trump’s tendency to give aid and comfort to racists is in many respects a Rorschach test for how you feel about him personally.
But if the shoe were on the other foot – if it was Barack Obama in 2008 insisting to Jake Tapper, “I don’t know Louis Farrakhan … I don’t know Louis Farrakhan …” six or seven times in the space of 3 minutes (or, if not Farrakhan, some other white-hating black bigot), I guarantee you everyone who later supported Trump would’ve been rightly up in arms about Obama’s obvious equivocation.
But since it was “their guy” Trump, they are willing to look the other way or make excuses for him. (“Hey, he wasn’t my first choice either — I wanted Cruz or Rubio — and, y’know, could he have expressed himself a bit better in that Tapper interview? Absolutely! But…”
Always the but…)
Every time there’s a disaster, someone trots out the hoary “broken windows fallacy.” This time it was Rob Long. No. Disasters do not make us better off. They are not good for the economy as a whole. What everyone sees is money spent on reconstruction. What they don’t see is what would have been purchased with that same money had there been no disaster. A disaster forces us to use scarce resources that have alternative uses to restore things to the way they were instead of using those resources to make lives better.
My son graduated from Benedictine a few years back. Both he, my wife and I loved that place. He even gave a keynote speech at their Scholarship Ball his senior year. He’s now working for FOCUS as a missionary, bursting with faith and idealism.
Good for Benedictine–and good for your son!
I beg to differ-Obama was and is a scumbag. He lied about Jeremiah Wright and bill Ayres. He weaponized federal agencies to harm his political opponents. He invited police-hating rappers to the White House. He sent guns to Mexican drug gangs, which they used to kill dozens and maybe hundreds of their countrymen, and at least one Border Patrol agent. He tried to use a tragedy to weaken the Second Amendment, and he encouraged his party to repeal the First Amendment. He tried to restrict freedom of conscience. He promised people that Obamacare would allow them to keep their doctors and reduce their premiums, when he knew for certain that it would do no such thing. Through his justice department, he destroyed Ferguson, MO, for political advantage. He spied on reporters, and others for political advantage. He allowed Hillary Clinton to let the Russians buy 20% of US uranium production. He refused to enforce immigration laws. He used the “dreamers” to try and boost Hispanic turnout, when he knew that without legislation, he was lying to them. He gave cash to the Iranians, and gave them a non-treaty that is going to allow them to build a nuclear bomb (remember, the Iranians consider Armageddon a feature). He pulled out of Iraq. He favors the Muslin Brotherhood. He traded a bunch of terrorists for a traitor. He pardoned another traitor and an unrepentant, bomber terrorist.
Barrack Obama is a awful, terrible, person.
Trump may be rude and crude, but in terms of human misery, Barack Obama is much, much, much, worse.
“Barack Obama, what a bore.”
Best assessment of Obama ever!!!
Loved this week’s podcast. The question-time motif was a clever idea, but I particularly liked the “inside baseball” perspectives Peter and Rob gave on the vision and goals of Ricochet, past and present.
I couldn’t agree more that the podcasts in concert with the website create a superb 2-laned avenue for thoughtful, conservative discussion and debate. Ricochet would be much poorer without either.
I have particularly come to enjoy all the podcasts featured on Ricochet, and when I’m travelling, which I do a lot, I experience a genuine disappointment when my last one is finished, and I then have to turn to Rush.
Keep it up…
Sorry but in order to concede your point that Obama is “much much much worse” than Donald Trump, one has to either forget or ignore the spectacle of Trump making common cause with David Duke and his pals in the Alt Right, as well as Trump’s decades-long reputation as a conscienceless businessman. And I just can’t do that.
Or one has to go back to the video tape, and double check the media. Did he actually say it? All the talking heads on TV they never play the quote. During the campaign there was also a reluctance to rebuke David Duke, but he did eventually get around to it. I think there are 2 things that trip Trump up on these issues, 1 – he likes people who praise him – and his first instinct is to flatter back, those who flatter him … 2 – As a life long NY liberal democrat, he assumes these people are a normal part of the southern republican party – and tried to ignore them as much as possible, or failing that not anger them.
Its still early days, and the Obama did set a slippery slope for Trump, in the fullness of time things may turn out badly. But not so far.
The audio of Trump’s now-legendary “I don’t know David Duke… I don’t know David Duke…” interview with Jake Tapper is readily available online and yours for the Googling in 2 1/2 seconds.
And the fact that he only “eventually” got around to rebuking a white supremacist tells you all you need to know about Trump’s ethics. (Another example of Trump’s vile behavior: He had already disavowed David Duke 15 years earlier, but he pleaded ignorance and an inability to do so with Jake Tapper when it was politically expedient for him to lie. Incredible.)
If someone who had called for the annihilation of Israel — Quadaffi, let’s say — had gone on to endorse Barack Obama back in 2008, and Obama had responded to that maniac’s endorsement by insisting “I don’t know Quadaffi… I don’t know Quadaffi… I don’t know Quadaffi…” everyone on the Right would have torn him a new you-know-what. And rightly so.
But Trump does exactly the same thing with a Nazi sympathizer, and people make excuses for him.
The mind reels…
Glad to see that others have called Rob out on the broken windows fallacy. I’m sure the building contractors in Houston will see Harvey as a windfall, as will some people whose insurance companies buy them shiny new houses. But that money all comes from somewhere. For everyone who benefits, someone else is hurt.
And Obama makes common cause with leftist dictators (calling Hugo Chavez “mi amigo”!), and “pals around with terrorists”.
Yea I found a fact check article about this.
http://www.factcheck.org/2016/03/trumps-david-duke-amnesia/
I was unaware for this, I wonder that Trump, is off being Trump that he doesnt bother to think about the things he’s said 10 days ago or 15 years ago. Obama had said he believes his in own bullstuff – I wonder if Trump is the opposite – he doesnt believe in his own bullstuff so he doesnt bother to remember what his past bullstuff was.
That makes Trump a definite improvement imo.
Indeed he did. I agree. But your post reminds me of the old cartoon that has the famous serial killer Son of Sam standing before a Judge and complaining “Life in prison?? C’mon, your honor. Lizzie Borden got away with it!”
In other words, how in the world does the reprehensible behavior of one president – – Barack Obama – – excuse the reprehensible behavior of his successor?
That’s letting him off too lightly. It wasn’t simply that he didn’t bother to remember a remark that he’d made 15 years before. Because heck, that could happen to anybody. But there’s no way you forget knowing someone. Or knowing about someone. And certainly not someone like David Duke. But that’s exactly what Trump kept insisting, over and over again, to Jake Tapper — that Duke was an alien concept to him, like quantum physics, or Mandarin Chinese.
He did it. With a straight face. And people keep making excuses for him.
Mrs. Fresch Fisch said she’d have dinner with Trump because Obama would have expected her to pay.
Finally got to listen to this – thanks for using my question!
Can I make a request, though, for next time? If you do an episode billed an answering questions, do just that. Don’t wait half an hour to start answering.
Ha! Don’t kid yourself. Trump would expect her to pay also – – the only question is HOW.
https://www.newsy.com/stories/leaked-audio-reveals-trump-bragged-about-groping-women/
REPLY TO FILMKLASSIK FROM GENERIC TRUMP SUPPORTER
Well, hardy har har. Nice link, Smart Guy, but I got news for you: It’s gonna take a lot more than “facts” and “empirical data” to shake our loyalty to the Donald.
So when we say Obama did such-and-such awful or imbecilic thing, we do not expect you to come back with examples of how Trump did something similar or even worse, all right? We can go to the Huffington Post for that sort of garbage, or The Daily Kos or Democratic Underground or hundreds of other websites and platforms that trade in that brand of toxic GOP bashing. So why not take your locally-sourced, cuck-coated Trump hate to one of them and leave us the heck alone!
Thank you and much appreciated!
You are not covering yourself in glory, but we are happy to stand back and watch the show.
Thanks, Arahant! I’m here all week! (And don’t forget to tip your waitress!)